West Bloomfield breaks ground on community center with pickleball courts

West Bloomfield Township has started construction on a community center that treats pickleball as a core amenity, not an afterthought. The new Connect Community Center on the Civic Center Campus will span 48,000 square feet and include indoor pickleball, a walking track and other recreation space, with West Bloomfield Parks targeting an opening in 2028.

The project moved forward after voters approved a 20-year, $25 million bond on August 6, 2024 to support the center and other park improvements. West Bloomfield Parks says the old Recreation Activities Center was demolished in May 2026 to clear the way for construction, and the new building is planned to be nearly four times larger than the existing facility. For players and groups looking for dependable indoor court time, that scale matters. It points to a place built for regular play, leagues and organized outings, not just occasional drop-in games.

The center’s pickleball piece also fits into a much broader recreation package. Official materials list table tennis, fitness classes, a senior lounge, meeting and event space, nature education space and an expanded outdoor natural play area alongside the indoor courts. The bond program also includes an expanded pickleball complex at Drake Sports Park, extending the township’s investment beyond the new building and into its outdoor park system.

Township officials have framed the project as a long-term civic asset, not a short-term novelty. Kelly Hyer has said the goal is for residents to use the center for the next 30 to 40 years, and officials have called it one of the largest township structures in history. They also pushed back on social media claims about wetlands on the Civic Center Campus, saying the project footprint, including parking, is less than 8 acres and that the wetland area under review is much smaller, with one area described as a tenth of an acre.

The planning process was extensive. DLZ says the project came out of a stakeholder needs assessment and was first envisioned as a 30,000-square-foot expansion before the official materials settled on the larger 48,000-square-foot building. The design team also had the site bridging toward the West Bloomfield Township Library in mind, tying the new center into the wider campus.

For pickleball travelers and local organizers, that combination is the real story. West Bloomfield is not just adding courts inside a building; it is building a weatherproof hub where winter play, group programming and multigenerational recreation can all happen under one roof.